Royal Oak Girls Basketball Loses its First Game of the Season

ROYAL OAK – The battle of unbeatens didn’t disappoint at on Friday night.

In a game for the top spot in the Oakland Activities Association Blue division, the Bloomfield Hills Andover girls varsity basketball team (6-0; 4-0 OAA Blue) stayed perfect with a 48-41 win over the Ravens (5-1; 4-1 OAA Blue). 

“Andover is one of the better teams, if not the best team in our league,” Royal Oak Ravens Head Coach Brian Sopata said. “Everything is a little bit quicker, guarded a little bit closer and offensively they have five girls that can score on the floor at any time. From that standpoint, it takes a complete team effort (to beat them) and we didn’t have that.” 

The Andover Barons used an 11-0 run in the fourth quarter to gain a commanding 46-34 lead with less than four minutes to go in the game. Andover hit some free throws and played solid defense down the stretch to close out the victory.

Royal Oak’s leading scorer Sami Stormont didn’t score until the final 90 seconds of the fourth quarter and finished the quarter with only four points.

“They did a nice job of limiting Stormont,” Sopata said. “We have to have some other girls step up. At times we did, but we need to work on that.”

Stormont was double teamed for much of the game. She did hit three 3-pointers, but all of them were in the first half.

Stormont's teammates struggled outside of an 8-0 run at the start of the second quarter. The junior guard finished with 16 points and was the only Ravens player who scored double digits.

Andover had a little more balance on offense. Rachel Rea finished the game with 13 points and Shannon Wilson had 15.

Still, it was far from a perfect outing for the Barons. Andover Head Coach Jeff Rubin wasn’t happy with the amount of times his team turned over the ball and he thought Royal Oak did a nice job of preventing his guards from attacking the basket.

“Their (defenders) on the ball pressure gave us fits at times,” Rubin said. “We couldn’t get in a flow.”

He also thought his team could’ve done a better job managing the clock at the end of the game. Andover had a double-digit lead and kept putting up quick shots instead of running down the clock.

The Barons now have a couple weeks to prepare for their next game. They play at Southfield on Jan. 5 after the school’s winter break.

Royal Oak will finish 2011 with a home game at 7 p.m. Tuesday against .

“Another big rivalry game,” Sopata pointed out.